


i'll make it red

by jangjoos



Category: Golden Child (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Fluff and Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 02:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17437943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jangjoos/pseuds/jangjoos
Summary: Two years ago, on a street like this one, Jaehyun met a vampire. It was a strange, surreal experience; vampires were exceedingly rare in this day and age, and by proxy, so were vampire attacks.





	i'll make it red

Jibeom woke up to the sun in his eyes and Jaehyun snug in his arms.

It was a sleepy Saturday morning. Pale light gently filtered through their bedroom window. Closed blinds cast pinstriped shadows between sparse patches of light on their carpet. From outside, muffled and stifled sounds of car horns and motorcycle engines could be heard coming from a distance. Jibeom tried to move, but Jaehyun decidedly shifted a bit as if to protest, squeezed his hand tightly underneath the sheets.

Jibeom lifted the sheets to press a feathery kiss upon his forehead. “Good morning.”

Groaning drearily, Jaehyun turned his back on Jibeom, taking with him more than half the duvet, shielding himself from the sunlight. With a breathless laugh, Jibeom took this chance to sit up and step into his slippers, to head for the bathroom before he could be pulled into the bed again.

“Jaehyun, I’m running to the grocery store today,” he called from the bathroom. “Do you want anything?”

Jaehyun’s reply was almost instantaneous. “Bread.”

“Noted,” Jibeom said, smiling to himself.

A few moments of silence passed. Jibeom turned on the faucet, turned it off again, brushed his teeth, washed his face. Just before he could leave the apartment, however, Jaehyun got up from the bed and demanded a kiss, and he was more than happy to oblige.

Jibeom always thought Jaehyun tasted exactly the way a rose smells- sweet, poignant, floral. Oddly and fittingly enough, there was something in that kiss that felt sharp, felt prickly like briar thorns.

**-**

Jaehyun worked evening shifts at a bar nearby. Early enough such that he left the apartment before sunset, late enough such that it was the dead of night by the time he returned. Jibeom always protested this, always tried to urge him to get a job in daylight, but Jaehyun always dismissed the notion. He much preferred the night. There was something beautiful about a city bathed in moonlight, about the arrangement of the lamps that lined the streets, about the windows that dotted the walls of apartments, how the lights within would flicker to darkness one by one.

Jaehyun stopped in front of the complex. He stepped inside, took the elevator to the seventh floor, walked down the hallway and knocked on the door of the suite that he and Jibeom shared.

“Jaehyun?”

Of course, it was Jibeom who answered the door. Seeing Jibeom’s face again after a long day was one of the world’s greatest blessings. Jaehyun smiled, then started forward to wrap him in a tight embrace.

“I missed you,” he mumbled into his skin. Jibeom smelled so good, so good.

Jibeom laughed. “And I you. Come in, come in, I made dinner.”

**-**

Dirty dishes littered the table, leftovers and food scraps yet to be packed and stowed away. A window was open, letting in a bit of the cool night breeze. Television was tuned to some reality program that Jaehyun wanted to catch up with. Lights were dimmed, curtains were closed. Jaehyun was curled up comfortably on Jibeom’s lap, and Jibeom took the liberty to play with his hair.

“Jaehyun,” Jibeom said softly, suddenly.

Jaehyun craned his neck, looked up at him. “Yeah?”

“I got you something.”

“Is it the bread?” Jaehyun asked, lifting an eyebrow.

Jibeom laughed. “Well, I got that, too. But no. It’s something else.” He stood up from the couch, pushing Jaehyun’s head off his lap in the process, walked over to the kitchen counter, procured a large bouquet of roses from the cupboards.

“Here,” he said with a smile, holding them out to Jaehyun.

Jaehyun examined them for a second, rapt with wonder, before gently taking them from Jibeom’s hands. “They’re beautiful. What’s the occasion?”

“There’s no occasion,” Jibeom pursed his lips. “It’s just. I saw them, and they reminded me of you.”

For a second, all was silent. Jaehyun stared at him for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, he leaped up from the couch and caught Jibeom’s lips in his own, one hand gripping the back of his neck, the other grabbing the front of his shirt. Jibeom smiled into the kiss.

“Kim Jibeom,” Jaehyun gasped as they pulled apart. “I love you, I love you so much.”

Jibeom flushed a little. “Love you too, Jaehyun-ah.” He then leaned forward again, and Jaehyun met him halfway.

And that moment was when everything began to fall apart. It was a long kiss, a passionate kiss. Time blurred together. The world around them ceased to exist. It was just Jibeom and Jaehyun now, just them in the spur of a moment that seemed like it would last forever. Except it didn’t. There was a drop of blood shed on Jibeom’s bottom lip. He knew it, he felt it, but he paid it no heed. However, there was something about it that made Jaehyun freeze. They parted suddenly. Jibeom saw his eyes grow cold, saw something inside him snap, and oh my god were those _fangs_ growing inside his mouth-

That was when Jaehyun struck; with little to no warning, he lunged forward. When Jibeom felt those fangs on his neck, felt them _tear through his skin,_ he couldn’t help but let out a cry, couldn’t help but stumble back.

Jaehyun appeared to have found his senses again. He pulled away, backed away, met his eyes; then his gaze flitted over to dark red trails flowing from the twin wounds on Jibeom’s throat.

Jibeom put one hand over the bite, then reached out to Jaehyun with the other. “Jaehyun-”

There was a puff of smoke, a cloud of mist. Something flew out the window.

Jaehyun was gone.

**-**

Jaehyun didn’t know where to go.

He found himself in an unfamiliar place, on an unfamiliar street in an unfamiliar city. Night had once seemed so warm and welcoming, but it now seemed to have grown hostile and cold. He still had his phone, yes, and it had already rung several times, but he eventually turned it off. There was no way he could face Jibeom again, not so soon. Not like this.

Two years ago, on a street like this one, Jaehyun met a vampire. It was a strange, surreal experience; vampires were exceedingly rare in this day and age, and by proxy, so were vampire attacks.

And as for what happened, he couldn’t quite remember the details. Vampires had a way of making you forget things, looking into their eyes will muddle your brain and twist your thoughts, and some were able to make it seem like you weren’t attacked at all. However, he knew he walked out of the encounter with a disoriented mind, a light head, and bleeding set of punctures on his neck. Vampires were rare because the disease only formed under very, very specific conditions- even when those conditions were met, there was only a slim chance that the victim would become afflicted. At the time, worrying about turning into a vampire would have been a little bit ridiculous. The immediate concern was making sure that he didn’t bleed to death on the concrete.

Jaehyun laughed. His cold laughter rang through the night, but he hardly cared. Ridiculous. This whole situation was ridiculous.

There was a hotel nearby, an upscale one that appeared to offer clean rooms and amenities. Jaehyun flashed his brightest smile to the person at front desk. They didn’t seem to be the least bit unsettled, which was a good sign. Vampirism was known to be easy to hide, and some suspected that most vampires lived scattered across society, blending in seamlessly with everyone else. To most, that was a troubling thought. To Jaehyun, it was a bit of a relief.

They pressed a key into his hands, showed him to the second floor

Jaehyun entered the hotel room, turned on the lights, but paused before entering the bathroom. People say that vampires can’t see their own reflection in mirrors. But it’s not that; he felt like he couldn’t possibly face himself at this time.

“It’s fine,” he muttered to himself. “It’ll be okay.”

Nothing felt okay.

**-**

For days on end, Jibeom waited. Every morning, he woke up to the sun in his eyes and nothing but blank space at his side. Every afternoon, he called Jaehyun’s number several times, each to no avail. Every night, he cried himself to sleep, perhaps hoping that somehow, somewhere out there, Jaehyun could hear him.

But it was like Jaehyun had simply disappeared off of the face of the earth.

For days on end, the bouquet of roses sat completely untouched in a vase on the kitchen counter. At this point, they were more so a bit of a sore reminder than anything else. A few days later, Jibeom decided to toss them into the trash. Too much pain for a bit of color.

Color. Red. Blood. _Vampire_.

“I don’t care,” Jibeom whispered with agitation. He buried his face in his hands. “I don’t _care_. I just want to have you back.”

But later that night, when he called the number one more time, nobody picked up.

“Please come home. Come back to me.”

Not a word from the other end.

**-**

Against his better judgment, Jaehyun went back to the city, his city, Jibeom’s city- if only to pay a visit.

It was the dead of night. Jaehyun perched upon a rooftop, bathed by the light of the pale full moon.

He spotted Jibeom along the street. The vantage point was high, and it was from quite a distance, but he knew Jibeom well. There was no mistaking his walk, his clothes, the way he looked at everything on the block...It was all so Jibeom. It has not necessarily been long, but Jaehyun missed him dearly.

He flitted away, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, his newfound vampire speed propelling him forward so much so that any onlooker would see only but a blur of motion. Over the past few weeks, he found that he could go much, much faster, but going weeks without drinking has rendered him drastically weakened.

It was just his luck. The only other living thing nearby was Jibeom, and God forbid he drink from Jibeom again.

Jaehyun traversed a bit further, until he was well beyond what was familiar. For a long, long time now, he has been telling himself that he’d go away, that he’d go far away from Jibeom and hopefully never see him again, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. It would be better, better for both of them, but he was weak. The thought of never seeing Jibeom again, never waking up next to him, hell, even never being able to observe him like this, to simply make sure he was okay- that brought him to tears.

The sound of footsteps against concrete snapped Jaehyun out of his thoughts. Indeed, it was time to feed.

There was a man walking along the street. Young, about his age, denim jacket and orange hair. Glasses. At just the right moment, he stopped at the mouth of the alleyway, pulled out his phone to make a call. Jaehyun counted to three, then jumped from the building and landed right in front of him. Shock clouded the man’s eyes at first, then it quickly faded into horror.

“You won’t remember any of this,” Jaehyun said as softly as he could, gazing into his eyes and summoning all the willpower he could manage.

To his relief, the man’s eyes began to glaze over. He then nodded and stood still, as if waiting.

Jaehyun took a deep breath, lowered his head, and began to drink. He didn’t take much. Afterward, his victim would perhaps feel a bit confused, a bit lethargic, but he will otherwise be fine. Hopefully.

“It’ll be okay,” he muttered into the man’s ear, half to him and half to himself. The man, still entranced, merely nodded again.

Under the thick cover of night, under the careless stars and the hopeless sky, Jaehyun took off, refusing to look behind him as he left behind the life and home that he and Jibeom had once shared. And this time, permanently.

Hopefully.

**-**

After yet another sleepy Saturday morning, another day of waking up to an empty bed, another day of sitting alone at the table and lying by himself on the couch. Jibeom decided that it was time to go.

Jaehyun wouldn’t have gone far. He couldn’t have. Jibeom could find him, he knew he could. Maybe he should’ve gone sooner, would’ve gone sooner, but. Yeah. Maybe he was wrong to think that Jaehyun would simply poof back after a few hours, a few days, a few weeks.

So he went.

A bus took him to the next city. At first, he had little with which to guide him, little knowledge as to where to look. However, hints did begin to pop up after a while. Locals reporting sightings of a bloody silhouette at night. Pieces of intel from cashiers at stores that Jibeom knew Jaehyun would surely stop at, if only just to look. And finally, most significantly, Jaehyun’s earring left inside a hotel room. Small world.

It was strange, fateful. But yes, that was most definitely Jaehyun’s earring, and yes, he had come this way, stayed in this very room. Jibeom pocketed the earring, slept for the night, and deigned to continue his search the next morning. There was a possibility that Jaehyun hadn’t yet left the town at this point. If so, he likely wasn’t going to leave any time soon.

**-**

A river cut the city in half.

Jaehyun sat at its shore, tossing rocks into the current, watching the city lights from afar. Occasionally, someone jogged past, and he could hear them breathing hard, could hear the blood rush beneath their skin. Occasionally, a car rushed by, and he could hear the music playing inside, could hear the inner workings of its delicate engine. As a human, sights and sounds like these would have been relaxing, would have been beautiful, but as a vampire, it was all. Really quite overwhelming.

He took a deep breath. There was someone on the other shore. Walking, as if searching for something. It was from quite a distance, but he knew Jibeom well. There was no mistaking his walk, his clothes, the way he looked at everything around him. It was all so...Jibeom.

Now, Jaehyun no longer breathed, no longer needed air to stay alive, but he felt his throat clench on itself. Questions rushed through his mind. Why was he here? How did he get here?

And there was a part of Jaehyun that ached to meet him, yearned to run across the river and catch him in his arms once again. Perhaps it was a good thing, the fact that Jaehyun actually physically couldn’t- not by swimming, not by crossing the bridge, not even as smoke. Not at this time, while the river raged and the current rushed angrily by. Vampires couldn’t cross running water.

So, Jaehyun reached out. On the other side, Jibeom didn’t even move. He couldn’t see him.

**-**

“So what brings you here, Jibeom?” Donghyun asked cheerily.

“Ah. I’m here to visit someone.” Jibeom laughed as Donghyun’s dog pawed at his leg, and he reached down to stroke its head.

Donghyun raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Like a family member?”

The sky was clear, the sun was bright. In the park, couples laughed together and families walked together. It was all so human, so _real_. For a moment, an hour, a day, Jibeom felt like he could pretend that everything was. Alright.

“Mm. No.” Jibeom scooped Donghyun’s dog into his lap. “My boyfriend. We have a bit of a distance thing going on.”

“That must be tiring,” Donghyun remarked. “But I relate. My boyfriend’s in the other city. Went to visit family. Talking often makes it easy, though.”

Jibeom said nothing at that, merely nodded.

Donghyun’s dog ran across the open area in front of the bench, barking playfully at a poodle holding a ball. For the first time in a long time, Jibeom cracked a tiny smile.

A few moments passed in silence. Before long, Donghyun had to leave.

“It was nice talking to you, Jibeom! All the best to you and your boyfriend!”

“Likewise,” Jibeom replied. “Goodbye, Donghyun.”

And then it was just him again. He sat up, walked aimlessly down the path, let go of his thoughts completely. Before he knew it, he was at the edge of the park.

The place was an odd contrast to the rest of the place. For one, it was empty, the path thin and winding, the foliage thick. Jibeom kept walking, however. He couldn’t find it within himself to stop.

Mist, fog, smoke began to curl around him. That, too, was strange.

Jibeom stopped walking. “Jaehyun?” He called out quietly, voice almost a whisper.

Not a word. But mist gathered on the ground in front of him, swirling at his feet. When it cleared, a single red rose appeared in its place. And perhaps it was just his imagination, but he thought he heard someone say something unintelligible, as if from a distance, but at the same time it sounded like it came from right in front of him.

“Show yourself,” Jibeom said, trembling now. Not a word.

He picked up the rose. A light breeze whistled through the air. The sky was clear, the sun was bright.

**-**

Despite himself, Jaehyun left Jibeom many roses.

Some of them were left right in front of his feet, right in front of his eyes. Some of them were hidden in places Jaehyun knew he would look. Some of them were slipped into his hands, into his pockets while he wasn’t looking.   

Jaehyun was beginning to get used to this life. Not life without Jibeom, necessarily; he didn’t see himself ever really getting used to that. It was the whole vampire thing. It was a bit alarming, but seeking out victims to bite no longer grated on him as much as it used to. He wasn’t hurting them, after all. As well, his heightened senses, the stimulation and bustle of the world in daylight, that was getting a lot better. He could live with this.

Yet still, he much preferred the night. It was much brighter now, much more vibrant. The night carried with it may colors, a wider spectrum of them than the human eye could ever hope to detect, and no two nights were ever the same. Whenever the moon changed, the night changed with it; the buildings, the clouds, the streets, the lights. It was magical.

An empty street sprawled out in front of Jaehyun as he walked. After a while, he began to hear faint footsteps behind him, thumping against the concrete. While this wasn’t a strange occurrence- people walked on the street all the time, after all, the street was made for walking on- the footsteps gradually grew louder, faster, greater in urgency.

“Jaehyun.”

Jaehyun turned around.

**-**

“Jaehyun,” Jibeom called out again. He held a single rose in his hands, clutched its stalk tightly between his fingers.

Jaehyun watched him carefully, as if calculating, and for a moment Jibeom was sure that he would disappear again, would turn into a puff of smoke and simply leave like he had on that fateful night.

But he stayed. Stayed still, kept watching, kept waiting.

Jibeom held the rose out to him.

“Jaehyun,” he said again, as if his name were an invocation. Jaehyun did nothing still, stayed still, kept watching, kept waiting. In the few moments wherein Jaehyun stood still, a second felt like forever.

And Jaehyun cracked a smile, a smile that took Jibeom’s breath away. That man. He disappeared one day, left for weeks, left Jibeom hurting for weeks and he must have known it- he did all that, and he still had the gall to smile like that.

In a burst of rage, Jibeom tossed the rose at him. Jaehyun lifted his hand and caught it effortlessly between his forefinger and his thumb.

“Where have you _been_.” Jibeom didn’t say this like a question; rather, it was much like an accusation.

Jaehyun said nothing for a moment, then gestured at the city around him. “Around,” he mumbled, so quietly that Jibeom barely heard. But he heard. “I’ve been around.”

“You really haven’t,” Jibeom replied darkly. He walked over to Jaehyun, stopped at his side such that his shoulder was just brushing his own.

“I needed you, Jaehyun. Where did you _go_ ? _Why?_ ” His voice edged into a sob, but at this point, he hardly cared.

He turned around to see Jaehyun close his eyes, then take a deep breath.

“I. Was afraid.” He choked out, passing the rose back to Jibeom. “I hurt you, Jibeom. And I was afraid I’d hurt you again.”

Jibeom couldn’t help himself. He laughed; a cold laugh, a cruel one.

“Hurt me? What, you mean the bite?”

Jaehyun nodded mutely.

Jibeom’s hand lifted to touch the pale, old band-aid on his neck. His fingertips danced upon its surface until they found its edges. In a single, desperate stroke, he tore it right off, revealing two tiny punctures in his skin. They’ve completely healed over at this point, scar tissues have rendered them a pale beige instead of the fresh scarlet he’d known.

Jaehyun looked to the ground.

“Do you think,” Jibeom said slowly, “do you really think that _these_ hurt more than all the days I spent waiting for you? All the time I spent looking for you?”

Not a word.

I don’t give a _shit_ about the vampire thing, you know. I don’t care if you need my blood or if you’re a monster or whatever. Just as long as you’re here with me, as long as you’re by my side. I don’t care.”

Jibeom walked around him, stopped right in front of him. Ever slowly, he lifted a hand, then set it down on Jaehyun’s shoulder.

“Jaehyun,” Jibeom almost whispered. “Jaehyun, you can’t just _do_ this to me. You can’t just do that and expect me to be okay. Jaehyun, I _love_ you.”

Jaehyun’s head lifted again. Water was gathering in his big brown eyes. His lips were trembling, a single tear rolled down his cheek.

“I love you too, Kim Jibeom,” he muttered back. “More than you know.”

Jibeom reached out and wrapped his arms around him, gathered him in a thick, warm embrace. Snow began to fall from the sky. When they parted, Jibeom pressed the rose into his hands again, one last time.

“Come home, Jaehyun.”

Jaehyun exhaled, twirled the rose between his fingers, then closed his eyes. “Alright.”

**-**

Jibeom woke up to the sun in his eyes and Jaehyun snug in his arms. Pale light gently filtered through their bedroom window. Closed blinds cast pinstriped shadows between sparse patches of light on their carpet. The sky was clear, the sun was bright.

Everything was going to be okay.

 

**Author's Note:**

> -title from la vie en rose by izone, to nobody's surprise. it's sorta relevant  
> -that orange hair dude was totally joochan  
> -idk man i just really liked the idea of bongjae being a vamp and just kinda. went from there skdjsks  
> -many thanks to glad for reading over this ! <3  
> -hope you enjoyed this vamp angst skdjs it's kinda edgy and very melodramatic but. lol.  
> -my twt is @goldemess if you wanna talk to me :D im nice i swear


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